by Dave Birkett, USA TODAY Sports

by Dave Birkett, USA TODAY Sports

Detroit Lions coach Jim Schwartz strongly denied a FOXSports report that defensive tackle Ndamukong Suh has been a menace to teammates in practice, occasionally stomping players and even slamming their heads to the ground.

"I can say unequivocally he has never slammed anybody's head to the ground or stomped on anybody," Schwartz said at his news conference Monday. "That's just inflammatory stuff, it gets headlines and it gets reaction. But I would bet that you guys would have reported that long before a guy that's never been to one of our practices reports it."

On FOX's pregame show Sunday, NFL insider Jay Glazer cited "people inside Detroit" in saying that Suh's practice behavior has been an issue.

"Ndamukong gives guys the business," Glazer said. "He'll slam a guy's head against the ground, he'll stomp on a guy, he'll take little shots at guys, and guys are concerned that if he can't control himself even in practice, how can he control himself against somebody else's jersey?"

A person familiar with the situation said Suh's practice etiquette has not been an issue at all this year, but there were times he tended to get too rough in the past.

In defending Suh, Schwartz seemed to keep his comments to this season, too, pointing out that the Lions kept practices open for the entire preseason, not just the first three weeks of training camp like NFL rules allow.

During the season, reporters are allowed to watch just the first 30 minutes of practice, which entails stretching and position drills. In-season practices are typically less physical than training-camp workouts.

The Lions have had just one practice in shoulder pads each of the last two weeks

"All I can tell you is you guys saw all our practices and unequivocally I think that's off base," Schwartz said. "He's done a very good job of in practice working around the quarterback. He had probably one time in all of training camp that he ended up in a power rush and put a lineman back into a quarterback, which is something we try to avoid as best we can. But he had one and that's probably the least amount of all our defensive linemen.

"It's a tough situation when you tell him to rush the passer but also don't hit the quarterback, stay off of the quarterback. I think he's done a very good job in practice of working through that and doing that. Like I said, I'll just leave it to you guys. You saw them all."

Suh came under fire last week after he was fined $100,000 for a low block on Minnesota Vikings center John Sullivan during an interception return, but he's been dominant on the field during the Lions' 1-1 start.

He had two tackles for loss and two quarterback hits in Sunday's 25-21 loss to the Arizona Cardinals and forced an interception with a quarterback pressure for the second straight week.

"Particularly against the inside run he was very hard to handle (on Sunday), and if (Cardinals quarterback Carson) Palmer hadn't thrown as quick as he threw, he would have looked different as far as sacks," Schwartz said. "You can't really read the stat sheet and know how effective a particular player was. The interception that (linebacker Stephen) Tulloch made last week was directly responsible to Ndamukong Suh. (Linebacker DeAndre) Levy's interception was directly responsible to Suh. ... He's done a really nice job."